Grenade fuse



June 28, 1949. M, BURDEN, JR Y 2,474,217

GRENADE FUSE Filed Mallen so, 1945 :JMU/wcm, Mninn Burdemdn Patented June 28, 1949 UNITED STATEAS PATENT FFCE GRENADE FUSE Morton Burden, Jr., Sewickley, Pa.

Application March 30, 1945-, Serial No. 585,758

' 3 claims. (ci: l10e-71) @rented under` the act of Maren 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) y v IThe invention described herein may be manne Adetonating the grenade upon failure ofthe initial vdetonating means would add considerable military usefulness to the device. K

It is, therefore, a prime purpose of this invention to provide such an auxiliary detonating means, which will automatically function to detonate the grenade upon the lapse of a brief delay vperiod should the grenade fail to detonate on impact.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved grenade which may be ired from a rifle or thrown by hand and which has desirable time delay features.

A further object of this invention is to provide a grenade iuze which will be armed for detonation upon impact or which will detonate at the end of a delay period after impact if detonation not occured at impact.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description and claims, and from the accompanying drawings, wherein:

`Figure 1 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectionalview taken on the line l-l of Fig. 2 showing the detailed structure of a grenade fuze according ,to this invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional View taken on line 2-2 of Figure l, and disclosing the arming means for the grenade fuze;

Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the fuze taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1; and

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view of the fuze taken on line 4 4 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, I designates a tubular sleeve member adapted to be appropriately -mounted on a conventional rifle grenade launcher for propulsion thereby in a well known manner; "or to be held in the hand for manual propulsion. .Sleeve member! is provided with .an aperture end wall 2 in which a fuze member is secured. Fuze member 3 comprises a threaded body portion 4 adapted to be screwed into the internally threaded vI6 sets off booster end of a standard hand grenade 5 with the major portion of body portion 4 extending into the grenade. At the inner end of body portion 4 is va cap member 6 within which is provided a booster charge l, which, when detonated, sets off the main fragmentation charge of the grenade.

The outer portion of fuse member 3 comprises a mating element 8 which is secured to body portion l by conventional flange elements e and I0 provided respectively on element 8 and body portion 4i, through which a plurality of bolts Il are engaged in a manner well known in the art.

End Wall 2 of sleeve I is clamped between grenade 5 and flange I0 for securement thereof, but may be welded or otherwise secured to body portion 4.

Cooperating internal recesses are provided in element B and body portion l to form a cavity I 2. Clamped between element S and body portion l and extending transversely across cavity I2 is a fusible strip I3 of Celluloid or other readily combustible material which carries a weighted striker member I4. An axial flash bore I6 is provided, communicating -with booster charge l, and having a primer member Il positioned at the top end thereof in position to be detonated by striker member I4.

A side bore l 3 is provided in fuse member 3, into which one end of fusible strip I3 extends. Bore I8 is inwardly directed at the upper end of element 3 so as to communicate with a primer member I9 centrally positioned at the top of fuze member 3. Bore IBNcontains a powder train or other well known combustible fuze timing means. ,I When primer member I9 is detonated the powdertrain, or other similar fuze train, in bore I8 is ignited, and after an initial period, ignites fusible strip I3. The combustion of strip Is releases striker member I4, during iiight of the grenade, thus arming the grenade for impact operation, whereby upon impact ofthe forward end of the grenade against the ground or other object member Iii will strike primer Il to detonate same. The detonation of primer I1, flashing through bore charge l and thereby causes the explosion of the main fragmentation charge, not shown, contained in the grenade body 5.

Should fusible strip I3 fail to release striker member I4 or should primer member Il fail to be detonated by said striker member, after a delay period. continued combustion of the powder train in side bore I8 will I ultimately cause booster charge 'H to be exploded. The time required for powder train I8 to reach the booster l can be about 6 seconds or slightly greater than the maximum time period for flight of the grenade when thrown or propelled from a grenade launcher.

Tubular sleeve member I is provided with a pin upon which is pivotally mounted a striker arm 2| provided with a ring pin element 22. A coil spring 23 is wound around pin 29 and has one end thereof in engagement with the rear side of striker arm 2 I, the other end of said spring 23 bearing against the inner wall surface of sleeve member I. Coil spring 23 normally biases striker arm 2| toward a striking position whereby firing pin 22 will strike primer member I9 when arm 2| is released. Striker arm 2| is normally maintained in safe position by a hooked lug member 24 suitably connected to an outer sleeve member 25 and extending through a slot 25 in sleeve member I to hold arm 2| in safe position. Slot 26 is of sufficient length to permit lug 26.- to move out of engagement with arm 2| when sleeve 25 is moved rearwardly With respect to sleeve I.

A safety pin member 21 normally extends transversely through sleeve members I and 25 in obstructing position with respect to striker arm 2|. At one outer end thereof, pin member 21 is provided with a longitudinally extending arm portion 28 and at the other outer end thereof is provided with a removable Cotter pin 29. A strong compression spring 30 is positioned around pin 21, bearing between arm portion 28 and sleeve member 25 and biases pin 21 to an extracted position with respect to sleeve members I and 25. When cotter pin 29 is removed, as would be the case for propulsion of the grenade device, pin 21 will be ejected by spring 30 when the user releases his grasp on arm 28.

A further transverse pin member 3| is provided, which extends through sleeve members 25 and I, elongated slots 32, being provided in sleeve member 25 to permit suicient rearward movement of sleeve 25 with respect to sleeve I to release lug 24 from holding engagement with striker arm 2 I. A coil spring member 33 is wound around pin member 3| and has one end thereof in anchored engagement with the inside surface of sleeve I, the other end thereof normally passing through an elongated slot 34 is sleeve I and through an appropriate opening therefor in sleeve 25. Slot 34 is of sufficient length to permit rearward movement of sleeve 25 with respect to sleeve I, suciently to release striker arm 2|. f

Coil spring 33 normally biases sleeve 25 to this rearward position but said sleeve is normally held in safe position by pin 21. However, when it is desired to throw the grenade device by hand,

cotter pin 29 is removed, as described above, I

causing pin 21 to be released for ejection by spring 39 as soon as the grenade device leaves the throwers hand. Spring 33 can then move sleeve 25 rearwardly to release striker arm 2|.

When the grenade device is to be fired from a riiie grenade launcher, pin member 3| is extracted by pulling outwardly on its extraction ring 35 and spring member 33 is thus rendered inactive. Immediately before ring, cotter pin 29 is removed, causing pin 21 to be ejected by spring 30. When propelled from a rifle, setback of sleeve 25 releases striker arm 2|, causing detonation of primer I9. There is sufcient frictional engagement between sleeves and 25 to prevent accidental release of the striker arm 2| prior to the grenade being propelled from the launcher.

It is thus apparent that the grenade device disclosed in the foregoing description is adapted to be either red from a riiie or to be thrown, and that in either case explosion of the grenade will occur either on impact or after a i'lrst time period, that is, in the event of the grenade failing to explode on impact, it will be set of after a predetermined time interval from the moment of launching.

While a specific embodiment of a grenade device has been disclosed, it will be understood that various modications within the spirit of the invention may occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, it is intended that no limitations be placed on the invention other than as deiined by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A multi-purpose grenade fuze and launching device adapted to be either manually thrown or fired from a rie comprising a cylindrical member constructed and arranged to be mounted on a rifle for launching, and also to be grasped aS a handle for throwing, a cylindrical sleeve frictionally mounted thereon for longitudinal sliding movement thereon, said cylinder member having an apertured wall at one end thereof, a body fastened to said wall and extending through the aperture thereof and having means for engaging a grenade body, a booster charge carried by said body, rst primer means carried by said body, a time delay powder train extending from said rst primer means to said booster charge, a second primer means carried by said body for xploding said booster charge directly, inertia means forwardly movable on impact to detonate said second primer means, combustible means restraining said inertia means and connected t0 said delay powder train intermediate the ends thereof, and means operable by said cylindrical sleeve for detonating said first primer means.

2. The invention recited in claim 1, including a spring actuated ring pin for said first primer means normally restrained by said cylindrical sleeve and releasable on sliding movement of said sleeve on said cylindrical member to detonate said rst primer, spring means urging said sleeve toward ring position and manually controlled means for retaining said sleeve in said normal position until the cylinder is released from the hand.

3. The invention recited in claim 2, said spring means being mounted in said cylindrical member to obstruct loading thereof on a riile, means for readily removing said spring means to permit loading of said cylindrical member on a rifle, and means operable by the effect of set back on said cylindrical sleeve to slide same into release position to detonate said first primer.

MORTON BURDEN, JR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,058,563 Deubler Apr. 8, 1913 1,309,280 Farrell July 8, 1919 2,005,053 Schlafer June 18, 1935 2,412,636 Short Dec. 1'1, 1946 

